From a photograph by Solomon D. Butcher of four daughters of rancher Joseph M. Chrisman, at their sod house in Custer County, Nebraska. From left to right, Harriet, Elizabeth, Lucie, and Ruth. Photographed in 1886.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

My daughter

All In The Family...

Here is my daughter Keely, on Mother's Day along with her big bouquet of iris. She's a senior at Murray State University with a major in Biology and a double minor in Math and Chemistry. She will be 21 in August. (Can it be true?!)

Keely is a busy person. Besides carrying a full scholastic load that always includes lab classes, she tutors 5 hours per week to fulfill the requirements of her scholarship and also works about 20 hours at a daycare center. I don't get to see as much of her as I would really like, but I am learning to let her go.

Keely is planning to go to medical school and she wants to be a pathologist. Her interest in this field was originally sparked by reading The Hot Zone. I am sure she will do fine in med-school. She has a good mind, an admirable amount of self-discipline and initiative, and a real interest.

3 comments:

I have a niece who is a forensic chemist, after reading books by Patricia Cornwell and seeing movies like "The Silence of the Lambs". It strikes me as utterly magnificent that girls these days even KNOW about careers like this, and then pursue them so successfully. I had no idea, when I was your daughter's age, that there was such a thing as pathology, much less that I could be involved in it.

Congrats on having raised a young woman with enough smarts and confidence to pursue such an exciting career.

Things have changed a lot in 30 years. When I graduated from high school in the late 60's, I didn't have much vision of women's careers beyond store clerk, school teacher, librarian, nurse, or secretary. These were the jobs that I had seen women do. Like you, I'm glad that girls see many more possibilities today.

IT IS STILL BEST to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasure; and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.(Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1867-1957)